Food Friday: What People Eat in July in Los Angeles, circa 1894

How We Cook in Los Angeles: A Practical Cook Book Containing Six Hundred or More Recipes Selected and Tested by Over Two Hundred Well Known Hostesses Including a French, German and Spanish Department With Menus, Suggestions for Artistic Table Decorations, and Souvenirs. Ladies Social Circle, Simpson M. E. Church. (Available on Internet Archive )

Now this church cookbook is great for many reasons.  One is the bounty of names in it from the book's publication committee to the 3 page  list of contributors (names of those not living in Los Angeles, include their name and city/state), to the names of the women in the  foreign "departments," and the officers and members of the Social Circle. Ads are also included in this cookbook.

Women from the following cities, aside from Los Angeles, contributed to this cookbook, Riverside, California, Orange, California; San Diego, California; Tustin, California; Pomona, California; Alhambra, California;  Long Beach, California; Petaluma, California; Santa Barbara, California;  New Brunswick; Boston; Bowling Green, Kentucky; and Philadelphia.

An essay entitled "Old Time Hospitality" by Jessie Benton Fremont is a nice family history/anecdotal stories of the author's  life.

Today's Food Friday is a July breakfast menu from this book (page 47).  Let me just say my kids will be happy that's not how we eat in Southern California now.

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Food Friday: Campground Cookbook Genealogy

While the cookbook highlighted today is not a traditional community cookbook, it is one where people were asked to send in recipes. Favorite Recipes from America's Campgrounds (1992) is published by the publishers of the Woodall's Campground Directory. In this cookbook, owners of campgrounds from all over the United States were asked to contribute recipes. All of the recipes include an introduction with information about that particular campground. The down side of this cookbook is that the name of the person submitting the recipes is not included. There happens to be some genealogical information in this cookbook but unfortunately the recipes are noted by the campground and not the owner or staff member that submitted the recipe. Luckily this recipe does appear to have the contributor's name,  Eloise Dean, who also gives a history of her family. Consider the genealogical information in the following recipe found on page 118:

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